Sanskrit literature. Whatever influence these literatures exerted in
Europe was indirect. If a subject was transmitted from East to West it
was as a rule stripped of its Oriental names and characteristics, and
even its Oriental origin was often forgotten. This is the case with the
greater part of the fables and stories that can be traced to Eastern
sources and have found their way into such works as the _Gesta
Romanorum_, or the writings of Boccaccio, Straparola and Lafontaine.
Sometimes, however, the history of the origin is still remembered, as
for instance in the famous _Buch der Beispiele_, where the preface
begins thus: "Es ist von den alten wysen der geschlächt der welt dis
buoch des ersten jn yndischer sprauch gedicht und darnach in die
buochstaben der Persen verwandelt,...."[21]

Poems whose subjects are of Eastern origin are not frequent in the
German literature of the middle ages. The most striking example of such
a poem is the "Barlaam und Josaphat" of Rudolph von Ems (about 1225),
the story of which, as has been conclusively proved, is nothing more or
less than the legend of Buddha in Christian garb.[22] The well known
"Herzmaere" of the same author has likewise been shown to be of Indic
origin.[23] Then there is a poem of the fourteenth or fifteenth century
on the same subject as Rückert's parable of the man in the well, which
undoubtedly goes back to Buddhistic sources.[24] Besides these we
mention "Vrouwenzuht" (also called "von dem Zornbraten") by a poet
Sībote of the thirteenth century,[25] and Hans von Bühel's "Diocletianus
Leben" (about 1412), the well known story of the seven wise masters.[26]

* * * * *

The great interest which the East aroused in Europe, especially after
the period of the first crusades, is shown by the great number of poems